What is Coconut Oil?
Infant formulas include a variety of plant-based oils in order to mimic the fat profile of breast milk. Coconut oil is particularly rich in saturated fat, which is why it is added to infant formula. From a calorie perspective, all fats are similar, providing nine calories for every one gram. Dig past the surface and you will see that fats are a diverse bunch!
Fatty Acid Diversity
Almost all the fat in human milk is in the form of triglycerides. Triglycerides aren’t unique to human milk; they are the universal form of fat in food. The start of the word tri means three and gives a big hint that glycerides must have three parts or elements. Indeed, this is the case! Each triglyceride has three fatty acids stretching out from its side like a zigzagging chevron. Fatty acids are the building block of fats.
Fatty acid diversity comes from their structure. Have you ever seen an old-fashioned, yellow carpenter’s folding ruler? It stretches out and folds back together in one exact way. I used to play with my grandfather’s ruler, folding it out to create zigzags of different angles and lengths.
Similarly, fatty acids bend based on the types of bonds present. Stronger, double bonds keep the angle tight, while looser, single bonds can extend out. These bonds influence whether a fat is liquid or solid at room temperature. In addition, fatty acids vary in length and are re-categorized by the number of carbons on the chain.
Coconut oil contains seven different fatty acids. Six of the seven fatty acids are saturated fatty acids, the type with long, straight bonds. This arrangement allows the fatty acids to lay close to one another and causes saturated fats to be solid at room temperature.
Meeting Baby Needs
About 50% of the calories in breast milk are from fat. Manufacturers add a variety of plant fats not just to get to the correct calorie mark, but also to create a fatty acid profile that is as much as possible like human milk. This is easier said than done because the goal post constantly moves. Fatty acids in breast milk change day-to-day and even hour-to-hour in response to mom’s diet and the age of the infant being fed. While much as been learned, we are still a long way towards not only understanding the fat profile in breast milk, but also how technology can reproduce it. Recent studies in Europe and South America have found significant variation in overall fatty acid profiles among infant formula brands; however, the total amount of fat in formula is regulated.
Regulations and Safety
The US FDA requires that infant formula has between 30 and 54 % of calories from fat or about 3.3 to 6.0 grams per 100 calories of prepared formula. However, most US formulas have between 4.7 and 5.3 g fat per 100 calories and provide around 43–48% calories from fat.
The European Commission requires between 4.4 and 6.0 grams fat per 100 calories of prepared formula. They prohibit cotton seed and sesame seed oils. These oils are not used in the United States, although they do not seem to be prohibited.
Dietary Considerations
Coconut oil has no dietary restrictions and is appropriate for vegans, vegetarians, and all religious groups.